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Are there any characters which you don't understand/ agree with the hype for?
Personally, it's Cynthia. Imo, most people who like Cynthia (no, I'm not talking about you if you're a fan) only want to simp over her. And I feel people only like the male champions and only like Cynthia as she is hard to beat (or have a double standard for female champions, not to get political). Like, why don't people ever pay attention to Iris, Diantha or Geeta? (Personally Diantha is my favorite and then Iris and Geeta). Like, Diantha is pretty and has a good story.
Also, the anime version of Serena, I personally dislike girly characters and most people only like her because of Ash x Serena, which I strongly disapprove of because a. they are ten and b. Ash is too oblivious. Imo, Serena is everything I disliked about May and Dawn, but at least May and Dawn had goals that weren't about gaining Ash's affections.
Comments
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Are you talking about in-game or the anime? Or both? I haven't seen the anime since the original series, so I cannot comment much upon it.
I personally do not care all that much for Cynthia myself. It was interesting that they peppered interactions with her throughout the game. As the series have gone on they have done more to characterise the gym leaders and elite four and give them presence within the world beyond their role as game bosses. This applied to Cynthia. And she represents one of the more challenging champion fights in the series, which I can appreciate.
Perhaps she is more prominent in the minds of younger fans, for whom a gen 4 game was their first game and Cynthia was their first champion; perhaps their first real challenge in a video game.
And yes, being a young, blonde woman does probably play a part, too. Video games have primarily appealed to men after all, especially genres like RPGs, and especially in the era when DPP came out and before.
Pokémon is one of the series to buck that trend and reach universal appeal, however, and video games in general were going more mainstream at the time. But men still remain the strongest audience for video games and Pokémon video games, so naturally an attractive woman is going to appeal to that audience, in spite of the western games industry's attempts to convince the world otherwise.
Iris I liked. She was a fun character in BW and I was surprised to see her as the champion in BW2. I guess it was just as reasonable as Wallace being the champion in Emerald, and it this case they wanted to show the passage of time with the previous champion's retirement and a new champion being instated. She was always portrayed as a child prodigy of sorts, so I guess that shows her progression. I never really liked single type champions, though.
Diantha I never cared for. XY had a forgettable plot in general, and even though they introduced her early, she never made an impression on me. I never found her fight challenging, and I played with the exp. share off. I can't imagine her fight gets better when you are overlevelled.
Geeta sucks. Her team comp makes no sense and I think her design looks daft. Even with Nemona hyping her up throughout the game, I found her disappointing. She feels more like the Pokémon League's HR manager than a champion. I think that might have been the point? Did that come across in the English version, I haven't played in English since XY?
When it comes to champions, I think Green is still my favourite. He was the original surprise champion. The game sets you up to want to beat him. He had a great, varied team for the era.
If there are characters I particularly dislike, it would be the gen 3-gen 6 villains, and not because they are villains.
Team Magma and Team Aqua make no sense. I understand the real world events that inspired the story, but in game the desire to expand the oceans or the land is similarly destructive to all life on the planet, including human life. Why did the bosses even need the moment of revelation? That was obvious from the start.
Team Galactic similarly make no sense. I suppose Cyrus is supposed to be a cult leader of sorts, but he is never presented as particularly compelling and I do not understand how their plans factor into his objectives or what his followers get out of it. He got a little better in Platinum, but I still don't see the vision.
French vanilla Ganondorf and his gang of men in red really do not work at all. There are hints of interesting ideas with Lysandre's talk of beauty and hatred of the selfish, but that's all they are. Ideas. Themes.
Many a modern media franchise has been tanked by adherence to "MUH THEMES" over any actual substance. Just have your characters state a concept. Your work is now mature and intelligent because it "grapples" with that concept.
Except Team Flare should be the very people Lysandre hates. Selfish people who are obsessed with the superficial and trying to destroy everyone else for their own selfish gain. There is no moment where he realises his followers are those people. He just plows through the plot, loses and then tries to activate his generic sky beam laser weapon anyway. Generic villain for villain's sake. Disappointing.
Special mention goes to Rose. I liked him through most of the story, but then he decided to revive the series tradition of nonsensical villains right at the very end. Somehow simultaneously the obvious villain from the first cutscene and an out-of-nowhere twist villain in the same story. Terrible game.
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I don't understand why people dislike Leon, I guess. He FEELS like a champion, with the whole Charizard pose thing. I don't get why many people like Cynthia that much. I like her, but… she's not THAT great. She feels like a champion, like Leon, but Leon also is funnier, and I value humor over most other traits. I also don't get why Silver is so popular. He's a pretty cool character, but… eh. He doesn't feel quite right to me. I've seen people say beating Hop makes them feel like a jerk sometimes: I like that. Because it makes Hop more alive, his ambitions to become champion over his big brother, his passion for battling, and his friendly rivalry. Silver is… distant and kind of a strange story, so I don't like him much. I also just plain don't understand Neamona or Geeta. You're my rival, but also a champion? And because I beat you… like, ten times, am I strong as a champion??? And to become a champion at all, I have to beat the supposed 'Top Champion'??? So, very, very confusing. I could go on with characters I think are under hyped, (Yellow perhaps?) but I'll stop for now.
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Pikachu: its a fine pokemon but its definitely overrated
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Show anyone who doesn't know what Pokemon is a Pokemon, could even be Arceus, and they will ask if it's Pikachu. Basically just a joke at this point.
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Yeah, those people need to have brain cells surgically implanted into them, imo.
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For the champions Diantha and Geeta are commonly agreed to be not very interesting and Iris is just disliked because of the anime, plus B2W2 isn’t at the same level as BW in the fan base yet.
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Sigh, personally, a detail that I've noticed is that the poc and dark skinned characters rarely get any appreciation, not to be political.
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Cynthia has the reputation of being difficult because the level spike in Gen 4 catches people off guard. Not to mention her team is really solid with three Pokémon that almost anyone making a team would have in Lucario, Milotic and Garchomp. You then add bulky Gastrodon(which some people use), Roserade(which was a new evolution for Roselia if memory serves and would likely be the player’s Grass pick if they didn’t go Turtwig) and Spiritomb(great opening lead given it had no weakness… now vulnerable to Fairy). She then returns in the Gen 5 games as a postgame surprise that gives people PTSD. Then she appears in the Anime multiple times, including beating the snot out of Paul in her first appearance. She returns in Gen 5 and Gen 8(World Tournament) too so her reputation is justified.
I like Iris from the games so when I watch the Anime, I get upset because they don’t treat her with the proper respect. Her Axew never evolves despite being a Dragon prodigy and she doesn’t catch a Dragon Pokémon until about 90 Episodes in and it’s a Kanto pandering Dragonite instead of Druddigon(whom she has in Pokemon Generations) or a Hydreigon that she has as Champion in the games. All of her progress occurs off screen and that’s partly why I hated the Gen 5 anime for so long.Geeta could have been better if they only reordered her team. Leading with her Ace instead of last and using Kingambit last would have done wonders for her Champion battle since it’d maximize their abilities.
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I like Iris from the games so when I watch the Anime, I get upset because they don’t treat her with the proper respect. Her Axew never evolves despite being a Dragon prodigy
I don't watch the anime, but they definitely want the main characters to have cute mascot Pokémon, and that usually means unevolved Pokémon. Look at Pikachu. Ash never evolved him in two decades.
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I pretty much agreed with most of that, except the part about Lysandre and team Flare. Its true, they do look like a K-POP band, but I liked their whole plot. It wasn't like an existing team that just gets up to mischief and steals stuff like team rocket, they had one goal. One purpose. One mission that all of team Flare could get behind.
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